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Can We Handle the Truth?

There are a lot of ways to write about the truth. The secular world is full of them. While this may help the secular world, it is from a Biblical base.

David and the Philistines: Most people generally know the story of King David. One part you may not know is about the time he spent living among the Philistines…the enemies of Israel. He was supposedly a turncoat. The Philistines allowed him to live among them because they thought he was killing his own people. The truth was that he was killing Philistines. They wanted to believe him so bad they never investigated who or where David raided.

“Which is easier to say?” Jesus was preaching in Capernaum. The room was so crowded, the men bringing a friend to be healed couldn’t get near Him. They climbed on the roof and lowered the man right in front of Jesus. Touched by the kindness of these friends, Jesus told the man that his sins were forgiven. The Pharisees were shocked and angered. It was blasphemy! Only God could forgive sins!

Jesus knew what they thought and felt. “Which is easier to say?” He asked them. “Your sins are forgiven or rise and walk? But so that you know the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins,” Jesus turns to the man on the pallet. “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” The man does just that.

The truth here is that Jesus *did* have the power to forgive sins. He is the Messiah. The Pharisees didn’t want to believe in Him. They wanted a military figure for a Messiah. They couldn’t handle the truth.

Pontius Pilate: Pilate asked Jesus “what is truth?” It was probably either rhetorical or satirical…but Pilate didn’t find any guilt in Jesus. The crowd outside still wanted to crucify Him. This crowd didn’t understand the truth…that Jesus was the Son of God. He wasn’t doing what they wanted Him to do. Here Pilate, a gentile and a pagan, could see more truth than they…because they couldn’t handle the truth.

Be willing to look for truth: We are not unlike the Philistines or the Pharisees. We are not unlike the people who shouted “crucify Him.” We’d like to think we are…but we aren’t. We have to look for the truth, and in this case the truth comes with a capital T.

Be willing to believe the Truth: Finding the Truth does us no good if we choose not to believe it or Him. In choosing to believe, we have to act. There is no way to “handle” the Truth without faith and action.

It is not by chance that this is being written in Lent. In fact, it started out to be an entirely different article…but because of Christ and because this is a time of searching our hearts and preparing for Easter…what I was going to say changed. That’s what God can do for all of us…if we search for the Him in truth, find Him…and act. Only then can we handle the truth.